No Time for Happy Endings
by FailedExperiment412
Summary: In a world without happy endings, Percy finds himself in another downward spiral. Takes place during the Giant war. AU


**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

His laugh was cold and humorless. The mirth was lost from his eyes, leaving them a dull yellow; cold and unnerving.

"Who's more despicable," The middle-aged man asked softly, without changing facial expressions. "The pawn or the player?"

He kept his voice steady as he continued. "The player is the one who is commanding the pawn, but the pawn should have a mind of it's own, right? When it's not a game, the pawn can control itself. Nobody is _completely_ controlling it. No matter how much their leader takes away, or tortures for that matter, the pawn would still have to cooperate with the leader do really accomplish anything."

He paused to regain his composure. "The trouble is, it is a game. You can run, but they will find you. They will suck you back in. Once they decide to, you're theirs and there's nothing you can do about it. It goes the other way, too. The leader has to do what it can to save its people. To win the game. One pawn isn't much of a difference in the grand scheme of things; the players are equally as desperate as the pawns."

The middle-aged man, who had introduced himself as Mordred, asked again. The second man in the small room, who couldn't really be called a man as he was only sixteen, didn't know how to respond.

The first man seemed to notice the raven haired teen hesitate, and answered his own question. "It's neither. The true villain is the one who set both players against each other in the first place."

The teenager was completely shocked. He couldn't mean...?

"Yes, I mean the gods. Their cruel reign must come to an end..." The first man slammed his fist into the table.

"Nobody else can die like that, dammit! We need to overthrow the Gods before they start another war, Perseus. You're the only one that can do it."

The news was so terrible that the teen, now identified and Perseus, was shocked into responding. "The Gods don't start wars, you know that! They couldn't-"

Mordred got right up into Perseus' face quickly, and yelled so loudly that it was a wonder nobody heard them. "You don't know anything! You can't know! You've been brainwashed into believing everything they tell you! They're not even creative enough to come up with new wars, they just re-create the old ones! Haven't you ever thought about how you always win by a hair's width? Or how the Gods are always unharmed-"

The second man interrupted the older man using some courage he didn't know he possessed. "They aren't always unharmed! You saw what happened to Dionysus and Apollo!"

"Yet, those are just about the only two that would anger Zeus!"

Mordred took a deep breath before continuing.

"They control the wars. They control the players, who have no choice than to sacrifice the pawns for the greater good."

Percy sat there in shocked silence for a moment, before weakly retorting. "Why would they create children just to watch them die?"

Mordred chuckled hollowly. "For amusement. It must get pretty boring after thousands of years, right? They would have all the time in the world to plan out and arrange everything necessary, don't you think? Why do you think there are laws keeping the Gods from warming up to their children? So they have no problem setting off a bomb beside them to create drama."

Percy's stomach felt like it dropped down to his feet. He thought of Bekendorf, Selina, and Michel, and _Luke_. Luke was right... and Percy just let him _die_...

Perseus suddenly felt sick, and dizzy. His throat was closed to tightly that he couldn't breathe. He gasped for air, and promptly puked on the floor next to him.

The teen sat up and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then looked up at the man in front of him. The man across from him had a grim, determined look on his face that Perseus mirrored.

"We have to do something about this." Percy had abandoned hope that this man was lying. It fit, everything fit. There was something else, though. As much as he didn't want to believe it, he knew that everything Mordred said had to be true.

"I know. That's why I called you here in the first place. We want you to join our resistance. We're going to pull those shiny thrones right out from under their royal asses. You in?"

Percy glared at the wall behind the middle-aged man's head, and angry set to his jaw. He took a deep breath, before locking his green eyes with sickly yellow. "Of course. Do you take me for an idiot? These bastards need to pay."

**So... Hi, I guess. I haven't seen you in about... three months?**

**Whatever.**

**This is something new I thought of in the mall shopping for Christmas presents. I prefer One-Shots, but I thought I'd try something new. This won't be very long, as I prefer to keep things short to keep people's attention, but I couldn't pass up this idea.**

**So, tell me what you think! If at least one person would drop a review to tell me they're interested, I'll write the next few chapters.**

**Special thanks to SimplyLimitless for the overwhelming support.**


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